I have been trying to give Glowforge money for the past three-and-a-half weeks. I want to upgrade from a Glowforge Basic with a filter to a Glowforge Pro without a filter. As this is a non-standard upgrade path, I’m unable to simply visit the upgrade page on the Glowforge website. This could have been handled via a brief phone call. Instead, after 28 days and 19 emails exchanged, I still have not been able to complete the transaction for my upgrade. Why can’t I simply have a five minute conversation with support in order to quickly resolve issues like this? I just want support to invoice me via PayPal for my upgrade to a Pro.
@dan, The problem is visible in the following timeline. Essentially, these types of support interactions require the customer and Glowforge to ask and answer a few questions. Because each step takes at least 3-4 days and sometimes longer for Glowforge Support to respond, the process is drawn out over multiple weeks. Please fix this.
The timeline:
10/13 Email to Glowforge support requesting answers to two questions. How much would I be refunded if I cancel my filter and how much would it cost to upgrade to a pro without a filter?
10/13 Auto-response from Glowforge acknowledging receipt of my email
10/13 Second email from me clarifying that I don’t want a filter on the Pro if I upgrade
10/14 First real email from Glowforge that includes a related blurb that doesn’t answer my question.
10/14 I email Glowforge reiterating the questions I would like answered
10/16 I email Glowforge asking for a response and repeat my questions
10/17 I email Glowforge again asking for a response
10/17 I post to the forum: “Glowforge isn’t responding to my emails”
10/17 @Dan responds to my forum post and apologizes for the delayed response saying that Glowforge normally responds within 3 days, but support has been busy.
10/21 I email support again and ask them to respond
10/26 I post to the forum and cc @dan: Why isn’t support responding
10/26 Email from support: Apologies for not responding
10/26 Email to Support, taking them for responding with initial answers and seeking clarification on the total upgrade price to go from (Basic + filter) to (Pro - Filter)
10/30 Auto-response from Support acknowledging receipt of my email
10/30 Email to support asking “How do I pay you?”
11/2 Another email to support asking “How do I pay you?”
11/2 Response from Support: We can invoice you via PayPal or take a more complicated path
11/2 Email to Support: “Please invoice me via PayPal”
11/6 Email to Support : Ping. Please let me pay you!
Contrast this with an experience I had as a Makerbot customer when my Replicator suffered from a crimped stepper motor cable. I emailed them with a description of the problem. Within 24 hours, I received a response asking that I give them a call. After 5-10 minutes on the phone, we had identified the problem and had arranged delivery of the replacement cable. I can only imaging how long this process might take if I have experience an issue with a Glowforge.
I am providing this summary because I want Glowforge to be successful. @dan, Is there any way that you can let us contact Glowforge support via phone? The only number on your website has a snarky message next to it suggesting that we can dial it if we would like to hear your voice mail message. This is unprofessional and not at all customer-centric.